(AP) Spanish officials sought to justify Tuesday their policy of sending unaccompanied child migrants back to Morocco, while 28 human rights organizations wrote to the Spanish prime minister urging him to end it immediately.
Hundreds of unaccompanied minors were among a surge of 10,000 people who tried to enter Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta in May by scaling a border fence or swimming around it. They have been in Ceuta since then.
Last Friday, Spanish authorities began sending them back to Morocco in groups of 15, triggering an outcry from rights groups.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Tuesday the returns were taking place under a 2007 agreement between Spain and Morocco for assisted returns once children’s cases had been considered.
